Copy Your Favorite Tee

When you sew your own T-shirts, you can refine the fit, alter necklines and shape to flatter your figure, and make tops in the perfect fabric. What’s more, when you’ve found that favorite T-shirt—the one that makes you feel great every time you wear it—you can reproduce it in every color for every season and add a variety of special details along the way. Once you learn how to make a pattern from your favorite T-shirt, you can copy the fabulous fit and shape into any knit you like. For summer, try a light tissue knit like the one shown here.

Prepare your favorite T-shirt by first gently pressing it flat. Be careful not to stretch it out of shape. Press in an up and down motion; don’t slide the iron over the shirt. Then, fold the front neckline in half from shoulder seam to shoulder seam, and insert a pin vertically at the center-front neckline fold. Repeat on the back to mark the center-back neckline and on the center-front hemline.1. Lay out the pattern paper and the T-shirt. Ordinary wax paper makes excellent pattern paper—and you can see through it easily. Lay the pattern paper over foam core. Smooth the T-shirt over the paper so the shoulder seams and side seams are exactly on the T-shirt edge and the vertical pins at the back and front necklines and hemline are aligned. Mark the paper at the pin locations. Hand-press out all bumps and wrinkles, and align the front armhole with the back armhole on both sides. If one layer is wider and won’t lie flat, it’s OK if the armhole seams don’t align. Carefully pin the T-shirt to the foam core.

2.Trace around the tee. Trace around the sleeves, shoulders, side seams, all hems, and the highest part of the neckline with a pen or pencil. If the seams align, run a needlepoint tracing wheel over the armhole seam. If they don’t align, run the wheel over the length of each seamline, tracing its shape. Run the wheel over the neck-band seam from shoulder to shoulder. If you don’t have a tracing wheel, you can use a pin to punch the line instead.

Comments (5)

craftretiree writes: I printed this article & it was in mini type! Totally unreadable as well as the font color a poor choice. What Happened? I never had any problems before and I always print your wonderful patterns & hints. Please look into this. Thank you.
Posted: 7:26 pm on June 28th

StarrBlack writes: Love this! I've been copying my favorite patterns in this manner for years now and it works great. I particularly liked the idea of using elastic to stabilize the shoulders. Much better idea than the bias tape I've been using. Thanks!
Posted: 7:27 pm on June 27th

EQOnlineFabricStore writes: This is a really great idea and a good introduction to making your own patterns. OnlineFabricStore is a great place to buy knits.
Posted: 2:12 pm on June 25th

sherat writes: Great Idea but I can't seem to print out the directions?? ?? Any ideas why not?? ??
Posted: 5:30 pm on June 23rd

tamk writes: Oh! this is really cute and much better than your basic tee. I will have to give this a try.
Posted: 5:12 pm on June 23rd